Work to convert Teddington's last remaining allotments for cemetery expansion is set to begin later this month (September) despite an opposition campaign from local residents.

Richmond Council rejected calls from locals back in March to rethink plans to extend Teddington Cemetery onto Shacklegate Lane allotments to meet urgent demand for more burial spaces in the borough.

However, a local musician, James Dylan Tomson, also recently shared his opposition to the allotment conversion by penning a campaign song.

Speaking about the upcoming works, campaign group, Save Teddington Allotments, told Nub News: "With work due to begin this month, we say Richmond Council is ignoring community voices and should investigate whether existing cemetery space could be better used before permanently destroying Shacklegate Lane allotments at significant cost to the taxpayer."

Thus, it is now calling on Richmond Council to pause its planned closure and £220,000 reclamation scheme.

The Save Teddington Allotments campaign said the council should "first establish whether the full site is actually required for burial space and properly assess lower-cost alternatives, including more efficient use and potential reuse of existing cemetery space".

The call comes as a National Audit Office (NAO) report warns that disruption to the UK food system is becoming more likely and potentially more severe, highlighting the need to strengthen food resilience within local communities.

Paul Cuff of Save Teddington Allotments told Nub News: "Why spend £220,000 before establishing whether we actually need to? Once these allotments are gone, they are gone forever.

"This isn't an argument against providing burial space. It is about whether Richmond Council is making the most responsible decision for residents.

"Our proposal to retain as much of the site as possible while the council properly investigates existing cemetery capacity, more cost-effective alternatives and grave re-use, (as proposed by the law commission and adopted by Parliament in 2007), was rejected.

"We estimate this has the potential to save the council £100,000 and possibly a lot more."

He continued:"At a time of financial pressure and growing concerns about food resilience, a decision to waste large amounts of public money destroying our only local allotments is difficult to justify."

Jane Cowling, another member of Save Teddington Allotments, told Nub News: ""I'm deeply disappointed that Richmond Council, despite calling itself a 'listening council', has chosen to ignore the local community and press ahead with the destruction of Teddington's last allotments - at a time when food security, council finances and biodiversity loss are all major concerns.

"We offered the Council a genuine compromise: take only half the allotments, giving them enough cemetery capacity for at least another 11 years, while potentially saving taxpayers more than £100,000 that may never need to be spent. Yet they have simply ignored it.

"More frustratingly, the reasons given for rejecting this compromise have changed repeatedly. The latest claim about the central 'bund' is simply not credible - it isn't even a bund and would not prevent the proposal from working.

"The reality is that the Council has had nearly a decade to develop the sustainable grave-reuse strategy it promised. Its failure to do so has helped create this situation, and now local residents, the environment and taxpayers are being asked to pay the price."

In 2018, Richmond Council adopted proposals to assess remaining burial capacity, consider whether additional plots could be created through better use of existing cemetery space and develop a sustainable burial strategy.

Since then, Cuff said, "they have done absolutely nothing to develop this and now find themselves in a crisis with no burial space left in Teddington".

The campaign is calling on Richmond Council to:

1. Pause the closure and eviction of remaining plot holders.
2. Develop the proposals first put forward in 2018 to establish actual burial land requirements.
3. Re-asses the need to reclaim part or all of the existing allotments.

Additionally, the campaign argues that Richmond Council "should not permanently destroy a valuable community food-growing resource until it has demonstrated that the full site is necessary, affordable and the best available option".

The campaign's petition opposing the closure, which attracted 1,758 signatures from local residents, was dismissed by Richmond Council's chair of the environment, sustainability, culture and sports committee, Cllr Julia Neden-Watts, who said: "Councillors are not swayed purely by what seems like a bargaining chip."

More information about the Save Teddington Allotments Campaign and how to support it can be found via its website here.

A Richmond Council spokesperson told Nub News: "We know people feel strongly about Shacklegate Lane allotments and understand the upset. Allotments are valued community spaces, and this has not been an easy decision.

"The land at Shacklegate Lane was originally designated for cemetery use in the 19th century. The planned works will provide more than 700 new burial spaces, securing burial provision in Teddington for around the next 30 years.

"Our teams have been working with tenants to help them find suitable alternative plots at other sites wherever possible, in line with National Allotment Society guidance.

"It is worth noting that Richmond upon Thames continues to provide significantly more allotment space than the London average, with 12.3 plots per 1,000 residents compared with an average of 5 per 1,000.

"We want the cemetery to remain a green, welcoming and accessible place for residents. As part of the works, we will reintroduce community growing space in the reclaimed area through removable wooden planter boxes, alongside plans to improve biodiversity, create volunteering opportunities and develop accessible community gardening projects."